I'm CO platinum and flew EWR-SFO last saturday night in a "Business First configuration" 757. I'd been able to upgrade via the 3-day platinum window and it was awesome as usual.

The return SFO-EWR trip(Tuesday night red-eye) proved much more problematic to upgrade. I called "the minute I was elgible", but all the tickets were sold in business class (as opposed to have some held-back). I called 3 - 4 times in total over the next 3 days; all in vain.

I got my business done early tuesday night and arrived at SFO at 6:30 for the 9:40 flight. I checked in and told I was the first platinum - so I was # 1 on the list (a GOLD has previously checked in).

I'm not a CO club member but I had a 1-visit pass which I put to good use. While in the club I asked my status and was told I was # 2 in line. I asked the agent in the club (a real nice gentleman) why I was # 2. He said someone who was platinum with a "Y" class ticket had checked in 10 minutes later than me. He was pretty adament (in a nice way) that that was the rule, that Y class automatically gets upgrade priority within an elite class. I called the elite line from the club and got the same answer.

I understand the CO business reasoning here ; but the elite member's guide is vague on this, not mentioning anything specific about Y class getting priority.

Has anyone encountered this before ?

(btw - I ended up # 2 on the upgrade list..happy ending..2 upgrades were available...though it was not BF configuration);